Mozilla Warns of Delay on Firefox 4

Mozilla Warns of Delay on Firefox 4

4th Feb 09:43

Mozilla has announced the plan to take its Firefox 4 browser to at least a 12th beta release before releasing final code.

The news came from Firefox release manager Christian Legnitto, who said in a blog posting that the Firefox 4 beta 11 would be followed by yet another beta before the browser looks to move into the release candidate phase.

A recap of the most recent Firefox planning meeting provides additional detail, suggesting that the beta 11 build could arrive next week and that beta 12 would hopefully be the final build before the browser moves in release candidate.

"B12 has a small enough list of bugs that it's plausible it will be the last beta, though we're not locking that up, since some of the plugin work needs to crystallize before we can assess timing risk," the company noted.

The news comes as a disappointment to many who were hoping to see the Firefox 4 release candidate arrive soon. The ninth beta build of the browser was released in December with speculation that it would be the final beta version.

The progress has been slowed however amidst reports of errors that include issues with the Hotmail service.

The company began the beta phase for Firefox in May when the first beta versions were delivered to users.

The browser has promised increased performance and loading speeds, particularly with handling of HTML5 code and Ajax applications. Other touted improvements include a new interface design and streamlined controls.